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Roller Coaster Reflections on Mother’s Day

“Hey, let’s go to Six Flags today,” my mother suggested one Saturday morning in early June of 1980 as she hovered over the shabby sofa on which I sprawled. “We shouldn’t waste such a gorgeous day, and you don’t have to work, right?”

“Huh?” I peered up from the juicy novel I’d planned to devour first over summer break.

“Come on, it’ll be fun!” In one swift move, Mom confiscated the paperback and hoisted me from my cozy nest. “You can read in the car on the way there and back, okay?”

“What about the twins?” I asked about my sisters. “They’ll be ticked to be left out.”

“Yeah, right, aren’t you funny! And besides, they’re working today. This is our special treat … on me.”

My older siblings had entered the “it’s-not-cool-to-hang-with-Mom” stage of adolescence. At fourteen, I was headed in that direction too, testing my independence with my first job at McDonald’s and spreading my wings with activities away from home. The mood-swing-inducing hormones that would distance me from my mother for the better part of the next decade were already running through my veins. Continue reading →